George Entwistle said that “between eight and 10” former and current BBC staff and contributors, including Jimmy Savile, had been named by alleged victims. The BBC later said the exact figure was nine, but could not specify how many of those people were still working for the corporation.

Mr Entwistle also said that an investigation into why Newsnight shelved a film exposing Savile’s child abuse could take six weeks to report its conclusions.

During a testy two-hour appearance before the culture, media and sport select committee, Mr Entwistle repeatedly denied influencing the decision to drop the Newsnight film last year.

He heaped blame on Peter Rippon, the editor of Newsnight, and said it had been a mistake to discontinue the programme’s Savile investigation. MPs accused him of a “lamentable lack of knowledge” about what was going on at the BBC and urged him to “get a grip”.

As he left the committee room, Mr Entwistle refused to answer questions from reporters about whether he was considering resigning.

A question of trust

Mr Entwistle said that what had come to light about Savile’s activities was “a very, very grave matter indeed” and suggested that the culture within the BBC had allowed the presenter to go unpunished.

He said: “There’s no question that what Jimmy Savile did and the way the BBC behaved — the culture and practices of the BBC seemed to allow Jimmy Savile to do what he did — will raise questions of trust for us and reputation for us.

“It is a gravely serious matter and one cannot look back at it with anything but horror that his activities went on as long as they did, undetected.”

Mr Entwistle said Savile’s alleged criminal behaviour had been possible because of a “broader cultural problem” at the BBC but that there was insufficient evidence to say yet whether or not abuse was “endemic”.

He claimed Savile “prosecuted his disgusting activities in a manner that was very skilful and successfully concealed”, despite a number of BBC employees telling Panorama that Savile’s appetite for under-age girls was well known.

Why did Newsnight drop the Savile investigation?

Mr Entwistle left no doubt that he felt Peter Rippon was solely to blame for shelving the Newsnight investigation, but said he did not know Mr Rippon’s reasons, because he had not asked him.

Asked by Ben Bradshaw MP if he had spoken to Mr Rippon, he said: “No, I have observed the chain of command,” and spoken only to Mr Rippon’s boss, the head of news Helen Boaden.

“Has Helen Boaden asked him that question?” Mr Bradshaw asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Helen’s only conversation [with Mr Rippon] was to remind him that just because Jimmy Savile was dead there couldn’t be any skimping in journalistic standards.”

Asked if that could be interpreted as pressure from above, he said: “I don’t regard that as an inappropriate point to make.” Asked who had “sat on” Mr Rippon, Mr Entwistle said: “Is it not possible that he changed his mind?”

He said he had found no evidence of “managerial pressure” on Newsnight. “The decision was made by Peter Rippon on his own account,” he said. An independent review would establish “what was going on in his mind at the time”.

Rippon wrong to cancel Newsnight investigation

Mr Entwistle said Mr Rippon had been wrong to cancel the Newsnight investigation. Asked by Mr Bradshaw if it had been a “catastrophic mistake” to halt the film, Mr Entwistle said: “I came away from [watching Monday’s] Panorama firmly of the view that that investigation — even if it was not ready at the point of transmission at the point he was looking at it — should have been allowed to continue.”

He added: “I’m surprised that nothing further happened with it. There was clearly some good journalistic material here.” He said an independent review would also have to establish why complaints made by women about Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter were not passed on to the police.

Asked if the fact that Panorama had ended up investigating Newsnight showed that the organisation was in chaos, he said that the Panorama documentary demonstrated the “fundamental health and independence of BBC journalism”.

What did George Entwistle know?

Mr Entwistle said Ms Boaden told him about the Newsnight investigation at a Women in Television and Film awards lunch at the Park Lane Hilton hotel on Dec 2 last year.

“Helen said to me, 'I want to tell you that Newsnight are looking at Jimmy Savile, and if it stands up it may have an impact on your Christmas schedules’,” he said. “I said, 'thanks for letting me know, please update me’. I was grateful to her for giving me the heads up; the key message I took away was that it was not yet clear to Helen whether it was going to happen or not.

“We never spoke about it again from which I inferred that the decision had been taken not to proceed with it, which turned out to be the case.”

Pressed further over the conversation by John Whittingdale MP, chairman of the committee, as to what he thought the nature of the allegations might be, Mr Entwistle said: "I don't remember reflecting on it. This was a busy lunch."

He said it was “relatively rare” for a head of news to brief him on an ongoing investigation and said he had no recollection of asking what the investigation was about. He would not have had any “qualms” about cancelling tribute programmes to Savile because changes are often made to schedules, he added.

Asked if he regretted broadcasting the tributes, he said: “In the light of what has happened, of course I do.”

A lack of curiosity

Mr Entwistle was accused of an “extraordinary lack of curiosity” over what the Newsnight investigation had unearthed and how it might impact on tribute programmes to Savile.

He said he “absolutely didn’t want to do anything that could be construed as showing excessive interest” and hence an attempt to influence Newsnight.

But Philip Davies MP said: “Surely you must have wanted to ask 'is it still appropriate for me to put these [tribute] programmes on?’”

Mr Entwistle replied: “I didn’t ask that question. I was waiting to hear if I needed to do anything more.

“It is an absolute priority that you do not put, or be seen to put, pressure on an investigation.”

Mr Davies said it was “absolutely astonishing” that Mr Entwistle did not ask more questions.

Rippon an “embarrassment”

Mr Entwistle said a blog written by Mr Rippon that gave an inaccurate explanation of why the Newsnight film was dropped had been “a matter of regret and embarrassment”. He and other BBC staff had misled the public because they relied on Mr Rippon’s version of events, which had now been corrected by the BBC.

Mr Rippon has been criticised for saying, according to a leaked email, that the evidence Newsnight had of Savile’s abuse was “just the women”, suggesting their testimony alone was not enough.

Asked about the “three chilling words” by Theresa Coffey MP, Mr Entwistle said the phrase, taken at face value, was “not in the least bit defensible”.

He added: “The culture [at the BBC] has changed since the 1970s and 1980s but I am not convinced that it has changed as much as it should have done.”

Last night Scotland Yard were reportedly preparing to make their first arrests in the case. It was thought that at least 60 of the 200 people who had come forward after an ITV documentary on the star had made allegations against people other than Savile.